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FOUNDER'S DAY 
ADDRESS 

By WILLIAM G. WILLCOX 

Chairman Board Trustees, Tuskegee Institute 

President Board of Education 
New York City 

At Tuskegee Institute, Alabama 
April 5, 1917 






Typesetting and Presswork done by 
Students of the Tuskegee Normal 
and Industrial Institute, Alabama. 



FOUNDER'S DAY ADDRESS 

IT is with many conflicting emotions that we 
meet today to commemorate the first Found- 
er's Day of Tuskegee Institute. Grief and 
mourning for the loss of the great leader are 
mingled with wonder and pride in the record of his 
life and achievements, uncertainty and solicitude for 
a future without his leadership are mingled with as- 
surance of the permanence of his work and confidence 
in his successor, appreciation of the difficulties to be 
faced is mingled with faith in the capacity and deter- 
mination of the colored people and sublime trust in an 
overruling Providence. It is indeed fitting and wise 
as we pass this milestone in the pathway of the race, 
that we should pause a moment to glance back over 
the long road which has been travelled, to survey the 
surroundings and conditions now confronting us and 
to take serious account of our resources for further 
progress. 

The Negro's Status after Emancipation 

The emancipation proclamation and the close of the 
civil war cast adrift to shift for themselves some four 
million people whose whole lives, until that time, had 
been shaped and controlled not by their own individual 
purposes, but by the will of their masters. Whether kind 
and considerate, as in many cases it was, or harsh and 
brutal in the hands of cruel owners, this control had 
relieved them of all responsibility and incentive to pro- 
vide for themselves and their families, with the in- 
evitable result that they were as ill prepared as chil- 

(5) 



6 Founder's Day Address 

dren to face the new conditions which their liberation 
brought. While their schooling during slavery had 
given them valuable experience in agriculture and in- 
dustry, the absence of responsibility had left them al- 
most more helpless than their unciviUzed ancestors, to 
profit by the independence suddenly thrust upon them. 
The war and the enforced emancipation had left a 
bitterness and resentment which was inevitably re- 
flected in the attitude of their former masters and this 
unfortunate antagonism was greatly intensified by un- 
wise political policies and unscrupulous activity of 
Northern adventurers. If the Negro people had come 
to this country as immigrants under the same condi- 
tions and with the same status as the people of other 
races who have made their homes in America, their 
reception would have been far more friendly and their 
progress far less difficult. 

Hampton Days 

It is necessary to recall these conditions to appre- 
ciate aright the discouraging situation which Booker 
Washington found as he grew to early manhood, 
which resulted in driving him closer to his own people 
with deep sympathy for their wrongs and their dis- 
advantages and with a determination to spend his life 
in their service. The result of this solemn consecration 
is an open book, but we never tire of scanning anew 
its familiar pages. The childhood in slavery on a Vir- 
ginia plantation, the boyhood in West Virginia where 
the new found freedom brought to the lad of eight 
years long hours of labor in the salt mines, the intense 
yearning for education, seizing every opportunity in 
intervals of work or at night school after days of toil, 
the ambition to go to Hampton fired by a conversation 
overheard in the coal mines, the five-hundred-mile jour- 



Founder's Day Address 7 

ney of the boy of fifteen undaunted by lack of food 
and lodging, sleeping under the boardwalk at Rich- 
mond, working his way when his meagre savings were 
exhausted and finally reaching Hampton with fifty 
cents with which to begin his education, the entrance 
examination task of sweeping a class room, wherein he 
showed his earnestness by sweeping the room three 
times, dusting it four times, moving every piece of 
furniture and cleaning every closet until the Yankee 
teacher, unable to find a particle of dirt on the floor 
or dust on the furniture, remarked, "I guess you will 
(Jo" — these early days clearly indicated the character 
and purpose and determination which were destined to 
bear such rich fruits in after life. 

Paying his board by janitor service, rising at four 
o'clock and working until late in the evening, he en- 
tered upon a new life in that great institution. The 
new surroundings, the opportunities for study and 
work, the association with teachers and students, all 
contributed to develop his character, self-reliance and 
power, but the most potent influence of all was the in- 
spiration of his association with General Armstrong. 
Never was the far-reaching effect of personal influence 
more strikingly illustrated than in the extent to which 
Booker Washington's whole career and his work for 
his people and for the entire country were the reflection 
and result of the influence and inspiration of General 
Armstrong's magnetic and forceful personality. And 
not only in the life of Booker Washington but in the 
lives of hundreds of other Hampton students General 
Armstrong's beneficent influence spread and is still 
spreading in ever widening circles with a far-reaching 
effect which the imagination is powerless to measure. 

At Hampton young Washington learned to love 
work, not alone for its money value but also for its own 



8 Founder's Day Address 

sake and for the independence and self-reliance which 
flow from conscious ability to do well something which 
the world wants done. And there he learned also the 
great lesson of unselfish service to others, which so 
dominated his after life. General Armstrong was quick 
to recognize the ability and earnest purpose of his 
promising pupil, and Washington was invited to re- 
turn to the Institute after graduation, first to deliver a 
post-graduate address, next to supervise seventy-five 
Indian students and finally to organize and teach the 
first night school for pupils who were obliged to work 
for their board during the day. Realizing the need and 
importance of special encouragement for these pupils, 
with his rare tact and sympathy he named them the 
"Plucky Class" and at once made the night school 
popular and membership a badge of honor. 

When but a little over twenty years old he had thus 
developed and clearly manifested those qualities which 
made him what he was. There was no luck in Wash- 
ington's success unless it was the luck of finding his 
pathway strewn with obstacles which made him strong 
and self-reliant as he surmounted them. Grit, perse- 
verance and indomitable energy, determination to do 
his very best with every task, however trivial, practical 
common sense, keen sympathy with the difficulties and 
struggles of his race and consecration to service in its 
behalf; these were some of the qualities which even at 
this age foreshadowed his certain success. 

TusKEGEE Institute Founded 

In 1881 the great opportunity of his life came and 
found him ready. Whether by fortunate chance or by 
wise foresight. General Armstrong by a word altered 
the entire character of Tuskegee Institute. Hampton 
had always been conducted by white teachers and when 



Founder's Day Address 9 

the Alabama legislature appropriated $2,000 to es- 
tablish an industrial school for Negroes in Tuskegee, 
the good citizens charged with carrying out this provi- 
sion assumed as a matter of course that a white man 
must be found for the task. General Armstrong, how- 
ever, replied to their inquiry that he knew of no white 
man whom he could recommend, but that if they were 
willing to appoint a Negro, he would suggest Booker 
T. Washington. The prompt acceptance of this sug- 
gestion at once and permanently fixed the character of 
the new institute as a school managed and taught not 
by the white race but by the Negro people themselves. 
Thus was an opportunity opened to the colored race 
and a position and influence assured for the school 
which never would have been possible if a white man 
had been appointed as its first principal. 

And so the young man of twenty-five years of age 
was installed in charge of the school, a school which 
had indeed an appropriation of $2,000 for teachers* 
salaries but which had not a dollar for other purposes 
and which had neither land nor buildings nor teachers 
nor students. A dilapidated shanty adjoining an equally 
dilapidated colored church was finally secured and with 
the help of an umbrella to supplement the inadequate 
roof in rainy weather the school was started. It was 
indicative of the thoroughness of the new principal 
that his first step was to spend a month traveling by 
mule and cart through Alabama, eating and sleeping 
with the colored people in their cabins and learning all 
the details of their every day life. The wretched con- 
ditions which he found would have discouraged a less 
determined man, but to him they were merely one factor 
in his problem. Studying his case like a skillful physi- 
cian, he quickly decided that academic education of the 
New England type was not the indicated remedy — 



10 Founder's Day Address 

that the system of industrial work which General Arm- 
strong with inspired common sense had introduced at 
Hampton, was equally needed in Alabama and that the 
simplest lessons of personal cleanliness, neatness and 
order, and of industry and thrift, were far more im- 
portant than the study of books. Not a little persuasion 
and firmness were needed to carry forward this pro- 
gram. Two hundred years of slavery had taught the 
Negroes to consider manual labor a badge of inferior- 
ity, and left an impression which unfortunately is not 
confined to the colored race, that education should 
enable them to make a living without manual work. 
With sympathy and patience, by example as well as 
precept he displaced this false doctrine with the true 
gospel of work as the normal and wholesome exercise 
of powers and faculties necessary for development and 
progress. The lesson which Tuskegee has taught of 
the dignity of labor and of the pride and happiness 
and true success to be found in good work of any kind 
is a lesson of vital importance for the welfare and hap- 
piness of all classes of the community. There is no 
greater satisfaction in life than the satisfaction of 
achievement and men and women who do not take 
pride in their work miss half the joy of living. 

Early Days of the School 

The thirty pupils with which the school started, soon 
increased to fifty and after a few months a neighbor- 
ing plantation of one hundred acres was purchased 
for $500, the cash payment of $250 being borrowed by 
Washington as a personal loan from General Marshall, 
then treasurer of Hampton Institute, and the school 
was moved to its present location. The house had 
recently burned and the only buildings remaining con- 
sisted of two cabins, a stable and a hen house, all of 



Founder's Day Address 11 

which were soon occupied as class rooms. Within six 
months the loan from General Marshall and the bal- 
ance due on the land, had all been paid, mainly from 
money raised from the white and colored people of the 
town of Tuskegee. 

No record of these early days would be complete 
without a tribute to the friendship and help of the 
white residents of Tuskegee. Mr. George W. Campbell, 
father of the present Vice-Chairman of the Board of 
Trustees, was a tower of strength to the struggling 
school and the attitude of the town was doubtless due 
largely to his influence, but throughout the entire life 
of the Institute this co-operation of the white people 
of Tuskegee has been one of the most encouraging and 
helpful factors in the progress of the school, an evi- 
dence at once of the liberal and sympathetic attitude 
of the residents and the tact and good judgment of 
Washington in respect to the relations of the two races. 

The Institute's Present Condition 

From this small beginning the material progress of 
the school was little short of miraculous. Starting with 
absolutely nothing the physical plant and equipment at 
the end of Dr. Washington's thirty-five years of serv- 
ice represented a value of about $1,500,000, while the 
Endowment Fund had increased to nearly $2,000,000. 
Moreover, during this thirty-five years at least $3. )00,- 
000 more had been raised and expended for current 
expenses, so that it is safe to say that not less thui 
$7,000,000 had been invested in this great enterprise 
through the efforts and influence of one man, born a 
slave and reared in the depths of poverty and ignor- 
ance. 



12 Founder's Day Address 

Tuskegee's Friends and Workers 

The story abounds in incidents of human interest. 
The devoted assistance of Miss Davidson who came 
from Ohio as his first co-worker and gave her life to 
the work with tireless enthusiasm; the generous, big- 
hearted help of General Armstrong who, despite his 
urgent need of funds for Hampton, organized an ex- 
tended trip through the North with Hampton singers, 
to raise money for building Alabama Hall, introducing 
Washington and speaking himself on behalf of Tus- 
kegee; the unexpected gifts often received when the 
need was most desperate; the growing confidence and 
support of such men as CoUis P. Huntington, Morris 
K. Jesup, H. H. Rogers, Andrew Carnegie, William 
H. Baldwin and many other representative business 
men; the innumerable smaller gifts from men and 
women of moderate means; the interest and constant 
help of clergymen and churches of all denominations; 
the pathetic sacrifices of the colored people themselves ; 
the splendid co-operation of Scott, Logan and other co- 
workers, all contributed to the marvelous result. But 
it was Washington himself who carried the crushing 
burden of securing money for the needs of the rapidly 
growing institution. No one will ever know how many 
anxious days and sleepless nights it cost him. If not 
the first, it was by far the most conspicuous effort of 
the American Negroes to build and administer a great 
educational enterprise, and Washington keenly realized 
that not only the success of the school but the reputa- 
tion of the race was at stake. Nowhere were his re- 
markable tact and broadmindedness more clearly 
shown than in his attitude towards people of wealth. 
Never was there a trace of fawning or begging, never 
a suggestion of obligation on their part or of criticism 
or disappointment if they failed to respond. He simply 



Founder's Day Address 13 

assumed that if he could interest them in the work of 
the school and satisfy them that it was worth while, 
they would use their own good judgment in deciding 
how far they should assist it. And people responded to 
this method of approach and gave not grudgingly but 
gladly because they were so interested that they could 
not help giving. 

From the very start the buildings of the school were 
erected by student labor. The beautiful structures 
which we see about us are rnonuments not only to the 
good taste and architectural ability of Taylor and his 
staff, but to the industry and skill of hundreds of stu- 
dents who have here learned the building trade and 
gone out through the length and breadth of the land 
to contribute to the industrial efficiency and progress 
of the American people. 

Booker Washington's Leadership 

But the raising of money and the building of a great 
school was only a small part of Washington's service 
to his race and to the entire South. The great problem 
of adjustment of relations between the races had been 
infinitely complicated by the blunders of reconstruction 
days and but little progress had been made towards a 
satisfactory solution. The Negroes, ignorant and inex- 
perienced, with little idea of working out their own 
future on a sound economic basis, restless under a 
vague consciousness that freedom had not brought the 
transformation which they had fondly anticipated, were 
suspicious of every move made by the white race how- 
ever well intentioned; while many of the white people 
of the South believed that their only safety lay in vigor- 
ous suppression of all efforts to educate the Negroes or 
elevate their condition. Mutual distrust bred bitterness 
and resentment, and injustice and crime followed as 
the inevitable result. 



14 Founder's Day Address 

It was a situation urgently calling for a great leader 
who could fairly see both sides of the problem and com- 
mand the confidence of both races, and it is not too 
much to say that no white man could possibly have 
done what Washington did in this crisis. Quietly and 
persistently he labored to teach his own people that 
they must begin at the bottom and not at the top; that 
industry and thrift, skill, intelligence and character 
were more important than legal rights or political privi- 
leges, and that to become worthy of such rights and 
privileges was far more vital to their progress than to 
secure such rights and privileges before they could use 
them intelligently. With infinite patience, sympathy 
and tact he won their confidence and inspired them 
with hope and ambition. Manual work in agriculture 
and industry ceased to be degrading drudgery and be- 
came ennobled with self-respect and pride. The dig- 
nity of labor, the love of work for its own sake, the 
pleasure and honor of doing a good job in any kind 
of manual work, the sure road to progress and recogni- 
tion in making themselves valuable to the community 
in which they lived, appreciation of their opportunities 
in the South and confidence in their white neighbors, 
pride in their own race and enthusiastic service to pro- 
mote its progress: these were the great lessons which 
Tuskegee taught during those early days and which 
it has continued to teach for thirty-five years. 

The Famous Atlanta Address 

At last after fourteen years came the opportunity to 
speak also to the white people of the South. The great 
Atlanta Exposition in generous recognition of the col- 
ored race had erected a large and attractive building, 
designed and built by Negro mechanics, to be devoted 
entirely to an exhibition of the progress of the Negro 



Founder's Day Address 15 

since the dawn of freedom. After much hesitation and 
discussion the Board of Directors, composed of some 
of the most hberal and progresive men of the South, 
had decided to invite Washington to make one of the 
opening addresses. It was the iirst time that a Negro 
had ever been asked to speak from the same platform 
with Southern white men on such an occasion. It was 
a national event and an epoch in the history of his race. 
Atlanta was literally packed with prominent people 
from all parts of the country. Representatives of for- 
eign governments, military and civic organizations, 
State and Federal officials, leaders in education, indus- 
try and commerce had thronged to the city. With 
trepidation and a crushing sense of responsibility 
Washington approached the ordeal. So tense was the 
situation that William H. Baldwin, then general man- 
ager of the Southern Railway, a trustee of Tuskegee 
Institute, and a personal friend of Washington, could 
not bring himself to enter the hall, but walked nerv- 
ously up and down outside the building, anxiously 
awaiting the outcome. Finally Governor Bullock an- 
nounced, "We have with us today, a representative of 
Negro enterprise and Negro civilization" and Wash- 
vngton faced the throng. 

Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Board of Directors 
and Citizens, he said: One-third of the population of 
the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking 
the material, civil or moral welfare of this section, can 
disregard this element of our population and reach the 
highest success. I but convey to you, Mr. President 
and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race, 
when I say that in no way have the value and manhood 
of the American Negro been more fittingly and gener- 
ously recognized, than by the managers of this mag- 
nificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. It is 
a recognition that will do more to cement the friend- 



16 Founder's Day Address 

ship of the two races, than any occurrence since the 
dawn of our freedom. 

Taking his text from the story of a ship lost at sea, 
at the mouth of the Amazon, whose signals for water 
brought from a friendly ship the reply "Cast down 
your bucket where you are," Washington proceeded: 
To those of my race who depend on bettering their 
condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the 
importance of cultivating friendly relations with the 
Southern white man, who is their next door neighbor, 
I would say, "Cast down your bucket where you are" — 
cast it down in making friends in every manly way of 
the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. 
Cast it down in agriculture, in mechanics, in commerce, 
in domestic service and in the professions. And in this 
connection, it is well to bear in mind, that whatever 
other sins the South may be called to bear, when it 
comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South 
that the Negro is given a man's chance in the com- 
mercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more 
eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our great- 
est danger is, that in the great leap from slavery to 
freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of 
us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail 
to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as 
we learn to dignify and glorify common labor and put 
brains and skill into the common occupations of life. 
To those of the white race who look to the incoming of 
those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits, 
for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted, I 
would repeat what I say to my own race, "Cast down 
your bucket where you are." Cast it down among the 
8,000,000 Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidel- 
ity and love you have tested in days when to have 
proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. 
Cast down your bucket among these people who have, 
without strikes and labor wars, tilled your fields, 
cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, 
and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the 
earth and helped make possible this magnificent rep- 



Founder's Day Address 17 

resentation of the progress of the South. Casting down 
your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging 
them as you are doing on these grounds, and to educa- 
tion of head, hand and heart, you will find that they will 
buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places 
in your fields and run your factories. While doing this, 
you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you 
and your families will be surrounded by the most pa- 
tient, faithful, law-abiding and unresentf ul people that 
the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to 
you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by 
the sick bed of your mothers and fathers and often 
following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, 
so in the future in our humble way, we shall stand by 
you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, 
ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of 
yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil and 
religious life with yours in a way that shall make the 
interests of both races one. In all things that are pure- 
ly social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one 
as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. 
There is no defense or security for any of us except 
in the highest intelligence and development of all. 
Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling 
the load upwards, or they will pull against you the load 
downwards. We shall constitute one-third and more of 
the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its 
intelligence and progress ; we shall contribute one-third 
to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, 
or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnat- 
ing, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the 
body politic. 

The wisest among my race understand that the agi- 
tation of questions of social equality is the extremest 
folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the 
privileges that will come to us, must be the result of 
severe and constant struggle, rather than of artificial 
forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to 
the markets of the world, is long in any degree ostra- 
cized. It is important and right that all privileges of 
the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that 



18 Founder's Day Address 

we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. 

In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty- 
years has given us more hope and encouragement, and 
drawn us nearer to you of the white race, than the op- 
portunity offered by this Exposition, and here bending, 
as it were, over the altar that represents the results 
of the struggles of your race and mine, both starting 
practically empty-handed three decades ago, I pledge 
that in your effort to work out the grand and intricate 
problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, 
you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic 
help of my race; only let this be constantly in mind, 
that while from representations in these buildings of 
the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, 
letters and art, much good will come, yet far above 
and beyond material benefits, will be that higher good 
that let us pray God will come in a blotting out of all 
sectional differences and racial animosities and suspi- 
cions, in a determination to administer absolute jus- 
tice, in a willing obedience among all classes to the 
mandates of the law. This, coupled with our material 
prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new 
heaven and a new earth. 

The effect of this address was instantaneous. Gov- 
ernor Bullock rushed across the platform and grasped 
Washington's hand and from all sides prominent men 
and women vied with each other in their hearty con- 
gratulations. Newspapers all over the country pub- 
lished the address in full. Clark Howell, Editor of the 
Atlanta Constitution, telegraphed the New York 
World that the address was one of the most notable 
speeches ever delivered to a Southern audience, a plat- 
form upon which blacks and whites could stand with 
full justice to each other; while the Boston Transcript 
expressed the opinion that Washington's address had 
dwarfed all the other proceedings of the Exposition 
and caused a sensation in the press of the country which 
had never been equalled. 



Founder's Day Address 19 

I have ventured to quote so largely from this address, 
not only because it was an historic utterance, in form 
and in importance destined to live among the really 
great speeches of our country, but also because it is on 
this platform that Tuskegee is builded, and on this 
platform that the Negro race is slowly but surely rais- 
ing itself to intelligent and efficient American citizen- 
ship. 

Fifty Years of Negro Progress 

The progress of a race can only be marked in decades 
or centuries, but if ten years ago Col. Henry Watterson 
could say, "The world has never yet witnessed such 
progress from darkness into light as the American 
Negro has made in the period of forty years," what 
shall be said today as we look back upon half a cen- 
tury. 

Fifty years ago, with the exception of a few me- 
chanics, the Negroes were practically all plantation 
field hands and agricultural workers. They owned no 
land, buildings, stock or equipment. During this fifty 
years they have inherited little, either of land or of 
property, and that which they have acquired they have 
acquired by hard work, prudence and economy and 
in the face of untold obstacles and difficulties. 

Today, nearly a million Negroes are operating farms 
for themselves. Of this number about one-fourth or 
220,000 own the land amounting to over 20,000,000 
acres, while three-fourths are still tenant farmers. The 
land actually owned by Negroes is equal to the com- 
bined area of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
setts and Rhode Island. In addition to these agricul- 
tural workers there are 300,000 Negroes working at 
trades and other skilled occupations — blacksmiths, car- 
penters, cabinet makers, masons, plumbers, engineers, 
factory operators, printers, lithographers, engravers. 



20 Founder's Day Address 

50,000 are engaged in the professions as teachers, 
preachers, lawyers, doctors, dentists, editors, and nearly 
as many more are engaged in various business enter- 
prises on their own account. They manage 400 news- 
papers and periodicals, own 100 insurance companies, 
50 banks, 700 drug stores, 250 wholesale and 25,000 
retail businesses. Negro farmers own $295,000,000 in 
land and buildings, $175,000,000 in domestic animals, 
$36,000,000 in implements and machinery and $5,000,- 
000 in poultry, a total of over $500,000,000, while other 
property owned by the colored race is estimated as 
$500,000,000 more. One billion dollars saved and ac- 
cumulated by the industry and thrift of the Negro race 
in the first half century of its upward struggle. The 
growth of forty years at which Col. Watterson mar- 
velled has been more than doubled in the last ten years. 
What a record of progress and achievement is this! 
What a monument, not only to the wise and forceful 
leadership of Booker Washington, but to the influence, 
inspiration and devotion of his loyal staff of co-workers 
at Tuskegee and of the thousands of graduates and 
students who have gone forth filled with the Tuskegee 
spirit to contribute to this result in labor for the uplift 
of their people. 

Character of Booker Washington 

The history of our republic holds no more inspiring 
pages than the story of the lives of men like Wash- 
ington who, rising from poverty and ignorance, grap- 
pling obstacles, conquering difficulties, seizing each op- 
portunity however small, and making it a stepping 
stone to another, have left behind them such a record 
of service to mankind. 

How clearly his character remains pictured in our 
memory — his never failing optimism, looking always 
at the bright side and dwelling upon the opportunities 



Founder's Day Address 21 

rather than the disadvantages of his people, his sim- 
plicity and humility, all unaffected by the honors and 
praise heaped upon him, his broad charity which left 
no room in his heart for bitterness or resentment, his 
deep sympathy with the common people of his race, 
never lessened by his own achievements, his pride in 
being a Negro himself and his sublime confidence in 
the capacity and future progress of his race, his pas- 
sion for service to his fellowmen, white as well as black, 
his appreciation and gratitude for sympathy and help 
in his work, his rare tact in delicate situations which 
so constantly arose, his unfailing good judgment hold- 
ing fast to high ideals but keeping his feet firmly on 
the ground in facing actual facts and conditions — these 
are some of the characteristics which those who knew 
him intimately can never forget. 

TusKEGEE Institute's Heritage 

This then is the rich heritage of Tuskegee Institute, 
not only this great plant of land, buildings and equip- 
ment free from debt, not only the two million dollars 
of Endowment Fund, not only the host of friends North 
and South who may safely be trusted to carry forward 
the work, not only its widespread influence and confi- 
dence among the best people of both races, not only the 
loyalty and enthusiastic devotion of its faculty, alumni 
and students, but above all and crowning this great 
monument, the character, example and inspiration of 
Booker T. Washington. 

The Future of Tuskegee Institute 

What then of the future! Seriously and soberly do 
we realize the great responsibility of carrying forward 
the work without his leadership, but with courage and 
high resolve that Tuskegee shall not go down! Let us 



22 Founder's Day Address 

never forget, however, that this resolve means work, 
sacrifice, determination, perseverance for every one of 
us. It is easy to meet as we are met today to honor his 
memory in words, it will be hard indeed to fitly honor 
his memory in deeds. If we really appreciate his life of 
self-sacrificing devotion and his great work for the Ne- 
gro race and for the American people, let us here and 
now register a solemn vow that with God's help we 
will give the best that in us lies, by character and ex- 
ample, by influence and persuasion, by honest and 
faithful performance of whatever work we may be 
called to do, by sympathy and charity for others and 
by the fine Tuskegee spirit of service to humanity, to 
honor the name and the memory of Booker T. Wash- 
ington. 

We have every reason for confidence and thankful- 
ness as we look forward to the future. Our new prin- 
cipal, his task made easy by the cordial welcome and 
loyal co-operation of teachers and students of the In- 
stitute, is winning his way to constantly increasing con- 
fidence and esteem. The friends of Tuskegee have gen-* 
erously responded to appeals for a Booker T. Wash- 
ington Memorial Fund as a tribute to his memory, and 
including a splendid gift of $250,000 for improvements 
conditionally promised just before his death, this fund 
now exceeds $1,000,000. $145,000 of this amount has 
been applied to the payment of indebtedness of the In- 
stitute, and $250,000 has been added to the Endowment 
Fund, thus complying with the conditions of the $250,- 
000 gift for improvements. $75,000 more is for a new 
girls' dormitory given by Mr. James in memory of his 
mother. $235,000 is payable in five annual installments 
and will be available for current expenses and the bal- 
ance of the fund is free for such use as the trustees may 
decide. With the $250,000 improvement fund the trus- 



Founder's Day Address 23 

tees propose to remove the barns from their present lo- 
cation and build new modern barns for horses, mules 
and cattle, to increase the water supply system, install 
a sewerage disposal plant and ice plant, erect new dor- 
mitories and teachers' cottages and make numerous 
minor improvements. 

The future of Tuskegee Institute is bright indeed. 
With this generous provision for its immediate needs, 
with the assurance of the continued confidence and sup- 
port of its host of enthusiastic friends, with the loyal 
co-operation of its principal and staff, with graduates 
and students throughout the South proving by example 
and influence the value of its work, we look forward 
to its constantly increasing usefulness in the service, 
not only of the colored race, but of the entire Southland. 
In this bright future every one of us should be proud 
to bear his part. From the highest to the lowest, each 
one has a share in maintaining and increasing the repu- 
tation and influence of the Institute. We are propos- 
ing to erect a suitable monument to Booker Washing- 
ton here in the midst of the buildings and trees and 
hills so dear to his heart, to keep his memory and the 
inspiration of his example ever before us as we go 
about our daily tasks, but his real monument is the In- 
stitute itself. If we would truly honor his memory let 
us each and everyone consecrate ourselves anew to 
carry forward the great work which he has bequeathed 
to us. Let us never forget that anyone of us who does 
a mean act, or a poor job, who forgets to be honest, 
truthful, straightforward, pure and clean, discredits 
Tuskegee and dishonors Booker Washington, while 
everyone of us who performs any task for Tuskegee 
faithfully and well, who does a kind act with the Tus- 
kegee spirit of helpfulness and service, who sets an ex- 
ample of fine manly or womanly character here at the 



24 Founder's Day Address 

Institute or in the broad world outside, is building a 
monument to Booker Washington such as he himself 
would have wished and is honoring his memory with 
true appreciation of his teaching and example. 

The Future op the American Negro 

The future of the Negro race in America is no less 
bright than the future of Tuskegee Institute. In the 
words of Lyman Abbott, Booker Washington was the 
interpreter of the black man to the white man, the 
white man to the black man, the South to the North 
and the North to the South. The great truths and prin- 
ciples which he taught are steadily spreading through 
the life and thought of the entire South and everywhere 
their influence is brushing away misunderstandings be- 
tween the races, promoting harmony and good feeling, 
and amicable adjustment of racial relations. We must 
never forget that outbreaks of crime and sensational 
accounts of discrimination and injustice attract far 
more attention than quiet and peaceful progress. While 
we of the white race have occasion all too often to feel 
shame and indignation at treatment of Negroes which 
the Negro race still have need of patience and fortitude 
we can neither defend nor condone, and while you of 
under wrongs which injure you less than those who 
inflict them, we can both find ample cause for encour- 
agement as we look on the other side of the picture. 

Gradually we are all realizing that the Negro is no 
more an inferior white man, than the white man is a 
superior Negro — that they are different races, with dif- 
ferent characteristics and different powers, but each 
with its own contribution to make the progress and 
welfare of our common country. So it is that complete 
race adjustment must come. As the Negro makes him- 
self valuable to society, his value is sure to find recog- 



FouNDER*s Day Address 25 

nition and appreciation. As his industry and thrift raise 
his own standard of living, as he becomes a buyer and 
consumer of the white man's products, as he becomes 
proud of being a Negro and still more proud of being 
an American citizen, and as he justifies his citizenship 
by efficient and patriotic service whenever opportunity 
offers, he will slowly but surely build himself into the 
life and confidence of the community and the nation. 
There is no limit to the progress of the Negro in Amer- 
ica except the limit of his own intelligence, ability, in- 
dustry, perseverance and thrift. The soil, the sun and 
rain, seedtime and harvest know no color line. Steam, 
electricity and all the forces of nature are his willing 
servants and their undiscovered secrets await his in- 
genuity and skill. As the greatest men of our country 
have become strong through struggle with obstacles 
and difficulties, so the obstacles and difficulties in the 
pathway of the Negro race will but serve to develop 
strength and power for further progress. Nowhere else 
in the world are ten million people at the same stage of 
development offered such opportunities as the Amer- 
ican Negroes are offered in our Southern States. 

Democracy on Trial 

In our great American democracy people of all races 
of the earth are working out the problem of self-govern- 
ment and mutual progress on a scale never before 
known to history. In spite of blunders and failures, in 
spite of incompetence in office and abuse of political 
power and influence, in spite of social and economic 
wrongs to be righted and problems to be solved, this 
great nation is marching forward in steadfast and un- 
wavering faith that the American people are capable 
of governing themselves, capable of applying and main- 



26 Founder's Day Address 

taining before the world the great democratic prin- 
ciples upon which our government is founded. 

But let us not deceive ourselves. Democracy is still 
on trial. It has still to prove its right to live in compe- 
tition with the efficiency of autocratic government and 
under the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest. 
If this great experiment is to succeed, if this great na- 
tion is to realize its high ideals and destiny, all sections 
and classes and races must loyally co-operate in pa- 
triotic devotion to the common welfare. Today we are 
facing a crisis in international relations which impera- 
tively demands a united people in defense of the liber- 
ties and rights of our beloved country. It is a time above 
all others to lay aside differences and grievances and 
to rally as one man in support of the President and 
Government of the United States of America. No na- 
tion which is unable to protect the liberty and rights 
of its people can long survive. If we value the liberty 
and opportunities which the founders of this nation 
bought for us at so great a price, if we are worthy to 
belong to the greatest democracy the world has ever 
seen, now is the time for us eagerly to welcome any 
call which may come for patriotic service in its behalf 
and to prove to the world that we have not forgotten 
the inspiring words of Abraham Lincoln and that a 
united American people is highly resolved that govern- 
ment of the people by the people and for the people 
shall not perish from the earth. 

The Negro's Patriotism 

In this great crisis the Negro race will not be found 
wanting. They will prove anew their right to the proud 
title of American citizens, prove their right to stand 
shoulder to shoulder with their white brothers in an- 
swer to their country's call, and if the supreme test 



Founder's Day Address 27 

must come, prove that their blood is as red, their heart 
as true, their courage as steadfast to do and die in its 

service. 

Would that Booker Washington could have lived to 
see this day. His love of peace and horror of war would 
never have caused one moment's hesitation or wavering 
in his proud welcome of the opportunity for his people 
to show their loyal and patriotic citizenship. When 
one of his friends once referred to the sacrifices which 
he himself had made for his race, he quickly responded, 
*'I never made a sacrifice in my life, for no one ever 
makes a sacrifice who embraces an opportunity to serve 
his fellowmen." It is in this same spirit that his great 
heart would speak to us today. Life is not measured 
in years but in deeds, and one heroic act outweighs 
years of selfish existence. The high ideals and noble 
purpose of Booker Washington are not limited to edu- 
cational and industrial progress. They stand for serv- 
ice to humanity whenever and wherever opportunity 
may offer. They stand for defense of right and battle 
against wrong. They stand for service to the nation 
no less than for service to the individual. In this first 
observance of Founder's Day, we commemorate not 
only Washington's founding of Tuskegee Institute, 
we commemorate also the proclamation and interpreta- 
tion of high ideals and principles for the guidance and 
inspiration of his people for all time. Never can the 
standard and aspiration of the Negro race fall below 
the high mark set by Booker Washington. Never can 
the influence of his example be lost on this or succeed- 
ing generations, and for ages yet to come the Negro 
race in America will be a finer, stronger, happier peo- 
ple, and our beloved country a more united and har- 
monious nation, because of the noble life of Booker T. 
Washington. 




ssaaoNOD do A^inaan 



